The Principal Research Core of the UCLA/RAND Center for Research on Quality in Managed Care supports two major activities. First, ongoing studies of quality of care, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness interventions will serve as the basis for new analyses and new directions within ongoing studies. Second, this core supports five pilot studies that open new research areas within the Center. These new areas help to further our understanding of quality improvement in mental health care by using qualitative and integrative methods to examine the local context and multiple stakeholders needs and perspectives regarding care for major psychiatric disorders. The five pilots open new areas of research within the Center's theme as follows: Pilot Study #1 develops and approach to study diffusion of evidence-based practice interventions for depression within all 12 regional medical centers of Kaiser Permanente of Southern California, a large group model HMO. Pilot Study #2 develops a collaboration with consumers, providers, and national experts to adapt an established peer support model for individuals with serve and persistent mental illness who are at high risk for incarceration or hospitalization. Pilot Study #3 is a pilot study of an innovative approach for providing incentives to providers to improve depression care. Pilot Study #4 examines parents' perspectives regarding quality of care for children with ADHD and will provide evidence regarding similarities and differences in parents' and providers' views of quality care. Pilot Study #5 explores the desireability and feasibility of improving access to and quality of depression care given by safety-net providers to uninsured Mexican Americans through support from lay health promoters and linkages to local community organizations. Together, these pilots provide new information regarding the contextual (individual, provider, system, community) factors that must be understood to improve and disseminate quality care for major mental disorders (depression, serious and persistent mental disorders, ADHD).